Africa CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong was a panel guest of the Atlantic Council’s round-table discussion on African Solutions to Vaccine Inequality, Tuesday, where he made clear that there were no local solutions, that only a global health perspective would suffice.
Implicitly noting the consequences of a “localized” approach, Nkengasong said right off: “If we [Africans] can’t get ourselves vaccinated, what will happen to humanity?” While not stooping to get caught in the “vaccine nationalism” debate fomented by the media, his point was clear: Where Africa is today is “regrettable,” he said, further noting that humanity must fight a pandemic with a global perspective, because of how connected we are as a species.
As an African doctor who has witnessed both the HIV and the Ebola epidemics on the continent, Nkengasong could only marvel at the “remarkable accomplishment” of the global mobilization and response to this point. His immediate goal is to get at least 50% of the 1.2 billion population vaccinated, and currently there are at least “commitments” for the doses to accomplish this. Otherwise Africa risks becoming, as he described it, the “continent of Covid.” His biggest “regret,” as he put it, would be to see the (British medical journal) Lancet with the headline: “Covid Now Endemic in Africa.”
